Drivers Would Pay More Under Transportation Bill.

Pennsylvanians would be asked to pay more at the pump and for their drivers’ licenses and to register their cars -- but they would have to do that less often -- under transportation funding legislation a senior Republican in the state Senate proposed Wednesday.

“The evidence is very clear: We have a problem. And no one has disagreed with me on that,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, said. “How we go about figuring it out is the issue of the day.”

Corman’s solution is likely to be the first in a series of bills aimed at implementing many of the recommendations of a Corbett administration transportation funding task force that were released last summer.

The funding panel helmed by PennDOT Secretary Barry Schoch in August made a series of recommendations aimed at raising some $2.7 billion to repair the state’s aging network of roads and bridges and to inject more money into public transit systems.

The debate has remained largely in park as lawmakers have waited for clear signals from Gov. Tom Corbett on which sections of the report he accepts or rejects and what kind of legislation he’d be willing to sign into law when it reaches his desk.

With just weeks remaining in this fall’s legislative session, Corman said Wednesday that his bills were intended to jump-start the debate over the issue, which he called the biggest challenge facing lawmakers.

“By not addressing it, we are passing it onto the next generation and it [the problem] will only increase in cost,” he said.

Corman has his work cut out for him.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, said Wednesday that he won’t report any funding bills out of his committee until he gets the all-clear from Corbett.

“I have no intention of moving any transportation bill until the governor tells us what parts he supports and works with us to write the legislation, and to make sure everyone’s perceptions are the same,” Rafferty said.

Corbett is still reviewing the task force’s report, administration spokesman Kevin Harley said. And he’s weighing the need for repairs against the still-sputtering economic conditions and “what the people of Pennsylvania can bear.”

Asked when Corbett might indicate what portions of his own report he’d be inclined to support, Harley said such an announcement would come “in the near future.”

Corman was undeterred.

“It’s important that we come together and do this,” Corman said, suggesting that inaction by the General Assembly amounted to an abdication of its responsibilities. “This is the most important thing we do.”

The task force’s report recommends lifting the cap on Pennsylvania’s oil company franchise tax, which is paid by fuel distributors. Under current law, the tax only applies to a maximum of $1.25 per-gallon of the wholesale price of gas, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Without the cap, the per-gallon tax would be 13.8 cents higher for gasoline and 18.7 cents higher for diesel. The task force’s plan phases out the cap over five years. It’s likely that some or all of that increase could be passed along to motorists, the Post-Gazette reported.

Lifting the cap would raise $272 million in the first year, going to $1.3 billion by the fifth year, Corman’s spokesman Mark Meyer said.

Vehicle registration fees have not been raised since 1997. An inflationary increase would take it from the current $36 per year to $49. Driving license fees would increase from the current $29.50 to $34.50.

The renewal for a driver’s license would increase from the current four years to eight years and registrations would be extended from one year to two years. Owners of new vehicles would not be required to have their vehicles inspected for the first two years they’re on the road.

Indexing those fees to inflation would raise $383 million in its first year, rising to $574 million by the fifth year, Meyer said. The Department of Transportation would see an additional $66 million in savings with the increased renewal periods and other efficiencies, Meyer said.

Corman said the average driver would pay 70 cents more a week during the first year, up to $2.50 a week by the fifth year. The choice, he said, is to ask to pay more now or ask them to pay more over the long haul in the form of wasted gas and wear-and-tear on their cars.

“This has been ignored and the problem has only been exacerbated,” she said.

The proposal has the support of House Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Geist, R-Blair, who said it’s critical that Corbett steps up to show leadership. If he does not, “it’s an absolute deal-breaker,” Geist said.